Condoms including erectogenic formulations are generally already known for treatment of impotence, that is, the failure to achieve an erection, resulting in an inability to have intercourse at all. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,991 describes a condom in which the interior surface is coated with a erectogenic except at the open and closed end portions. The erectogenic may be a transdermal nitroglycerine coating the surface tension of which, under friction forces on initially fitting the condom to the penis, breaks down so that the coating makes contact with the skin of part of the shaft of the penis, thus resulting in the gradual development of an erection which enables fitting of the condom to be completed, whereafter optimal contact between the penis and the coating is achieved to enable intercourse to take place. U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,621 describes a condom the interior surface of which has a coating of a lubricant and vehicle containing a erectogenic, or in which the erectogenic is in the form of a transdermal patch applied to the wall of the condom by an adhesive which has a lower coefficient of adhesion to the condom wall than an adhesive on the other side of the patch has to the skin of the penis in use, provision being made for making the stronger adhesive pressure-sensitive whereby it can be activated by manual pressure applied by the user. U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,100 describes a condom or other support material having applied over substantially its entire inner surface a vasodilator-containing film including an adhesive carrier, optionally with a reservoir for further vasodilator-containing material at the head of the condom and sealed with an internal user-breakable membrane.
The prior proposals suffer from various disadvantages. For example, since condoms are generally sold in sealed packages in a rolled-up form ready to be applied to and unrolled along the shaft of the erect penis, there has been no allowance made for the desirability of avoiding transfer of the vasodilator composition from the inner to the outer wall of the condom during pre-use storage, to avoid the genitalia of the sexual partner of the user being exposed to the composition. Another disadvantage is that it is difficult to apply a condom to a penis which is not fully erect and it follows that a vasodilator composition applied to the penile shaft-contacting part of a condom wall will be largely ineffective in stimulating an erection.